A Unified Message to Iraq

Published: November 9, 2002

Yesterday's unanimous vote at the United Nations Security Council sends the strongest possible message to Baghdad. Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president, must honor fully and without further delay his long-evaded disarmament obligations. U.N. inspectors will soon be returning, reinforced by tough new ground rules and tight new deadlines. The council's unified stand maximizes the possibility, admittedly slim, that Iraq can be disarmed without war.

Iraq has just seven days from yesterday's vote to accept the resolution. By Dec. 8 it must provide a full and accurate list of its unconventional weapons programs. A new round of inspections must begin no more than 15 days later, with full Iraqi cooperation.

If Baghdad complies with all of these requirements and deadlines, Hans Blix, the chief inspector for biological and chemical weapons, and Mohamed ElBaradei, in charge of uncovering nuclear weapons development, will report their findings to the Security Council in late February. If problems arise before then, the council will immediately consider enforcement actions. Washington has left itself free to act on its own with or without a further U.N. vote.

This is a well-deserved triumph for President Bush, a tribute to eight weeks of patient but determined and coercive American diplomacy. Mr. Bush and his aides believe that by threatening unilateral action they have forced the world to pay attention to a danger that had been allowed to fester. Once the alarm was raised, administration officials say, they were in a position to produce a draft acceptable to all the council's 5 permanent and 10 elected members, yet strong enough to involve rigorous and thorough weapons inspections, backed by a clear threat of military force.

That may indeed be true. But we hope the Bush administration has not invested the effort in winning unanimous support for this resolution only to end up acting unilaterally against Iraq. If Baghdad violates any of these provisions, Washington should insist that the Security Council enforce its decision. Only if the council fails to approve the serious consequences it now invokes -- generally understood to be military measures -- should Washington consider acting alone.

The unwavering goal is to disarm Iraq, enforcing a string of previous Security Council resolutions that Baghdad has contemptuously ignored. The cost of letting that happen has been diminished authority for the United Nations and a growing danger that Iraq's unconventional weapons will be used in war or passed on to terrorists. Mr. Bush has galvanized the Security Council to declare that its orders must now be obeyed and those dangers eliminated.